Garage



March 5, 1929. UMY 1,704,499

GARAGE Filed June 11, 1927 14 J L E Z.

J J RI .3 z N 1 v I INVENTOR I "w Ill,

6 I BY y r N 9 ATTORNEYS Patented Mar. 5, 1929.

OFFICE.

FERNAND E. DHUMY, OF ENGLEWOOD, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO RAMP BUILDINGSCORPORATION, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE.

Application filed June 11,

I more particularly to storage buildings such as garages of the typewherein the several.

floors are connected by ramps over which vehicles may be driven fromfloor to floor in order to reach their respective storage spaces. Themain objects of the invention are to improve and simplify the structureof such a building and to provide an easy ascent for the vehiculartrafiic without reducing the storage capacity of the floors.

Other objects will appear hereinafter. In the drawings: Fig. 1 is ahorizontal section taken on the line 1-1 of Fi 2;

Fig. 2 a vertlcal section taken on the line,

22 of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 a vertical section taken on the line 33 of Fig. 2.

The building, in the present instance, has

a rectangular plan and is formed with side walls 1 and 2 and end walls 3and 4. The walls enclose a bank of superposed stora' e and drivewayfloors 5 which cover almost t e entire ground plan of the building. Thefloors 5 incline upwardly from the end wall 3 clear to the end wall 4and are preferably parallel to each other.

At the center of the building is agroup of superposed ramps 6 whichprovide driveway connections between the various floors. These rampsincline oppositely to the direction of inclination of the floors andextend parallel to the side walls 1 and 2. Each ramp is disposed betweena painof adjacent floors and is connected directly to them to provide astraight, direct, vehicular path from one floor to the other. Eachfloor, with the exception of the lowermost one, is formed with anopening 7 directly over the ramp, leading upwardly to it, and ofsubstantially the same size and shape as the ramp. The floor openings 7provide clearance for the vehicles passing over the ramps and. permitthem to pass through the floors and out upon the inclined surfacesthereof. The longitudinal edges of the openings 7 and the correspondingedges of the ramps are provided with suitable curbing 8. The ramps areconsiderably shorter than the inclined length of the floors 5 andterminate at points spaced inwardly material distances from the endwalls 3' and 4. The

GARAGE.

1927. Serial No. 198,096.

ramp ends are spread outwardly beyond the curbing 8 as indicated at 9and merge gradually with the floor surfaces along curved lines.

Each floor area is laid out to provide two long tudinal driveway spaces10 and 11 extending from the wall 3 to the wall 4 and located midwaybetween the ramps 6 and the side walls 1 and 2. These driveways extendparallel to the walls 1 and 2. The floors are also provided withtransverse driveways l2 and 13 which connect the longitudinal drivewaysand extend across the opposite ends 9 of the ramps. Individual vehiclestorage spaces 14 are laid out upon the floor areas along both sides ofthe driveways 10 and 11. These storage spaces extend along the length ofboth side walls 1 and 2, along the opposite sides oft-he ramps 6, andcover the areas between the transverse driveways 11 and 12 and the endwalls 3 and 4. The ramps are thus surrounded by driveways and storagespaces upon each floor. The individual storage spaces are preferablydisposed transversely of the inclined length of the floors so that t estored vehicles will not accidentally roll out of their respectivespaces,

The end wall 3 is provided with a doorway 15 which opens directly intoone end of the driveway 10 of the lowermost floor. A vehicle may bedriven in through the doorway 15, upwardly along the inclined driveway10, turned to the right into the transverse driveway 13 and then up oneof the ramps 6 and through the openin 7 to the next floor above. At thisfloor the ve icle may be driven to the rlght, out through the transversedriveway 11, into the driveway 10, and up the incline of the latter tothe end of the next ascending ramp. In this manner the vehicle may bedriven from the lowermost floor to the uppermost one, or to anintermediate floor, to reach its respective storage space. All of theturns made by the vehicle in its ascent are right hand turns and ittravels over a path which a is substantially spiral and ascends almostcontinuously;

The ramps 6 are sufliciently wide to accom modate two streams of traflicside by side. A descending vehicle is driven down each, ramp andsuccessively through the transverse driveway 13, the inclined driveway11 and the transverse driveway 12 to the next descending ramp. When thevehicle reaches the lowermost floor it is driven down the inclineddriveway 11 and out through a doorway 16 formed in the end wall 3. Thevehicle is required to make only right hand turns in its descent. Thepath of travel of the vehicle is substantially spiral and descendsalmost continuously throughout its length. There is no intersection ofthe ascending and descending streams of trafiic at any point and thevehicles can, therefore, be driven rapidly from floor to floor with aminimum of confusion and risk.

The ascent passages at' the center of the building are laterally openalong their length.

This also facilitates the rapid and safe travel of the vehicles. Theramp driveways and the floor driveways are. mutually exposed across thecurbing.8. A driver of a vehicle upon any of the floors may easilyobserve the traflic upon a ramp which he is approaching and govern thespeed of his vehicle to avoid collision. From any of the floor drivewaysthe adjacent ramp pasageways are exposed to view along most of theirlength. Drivers upon the ramps have the same advantage. The'floor'driveways 10, 11, 12 and 13 are exposed to their view and they canobserve the traffic thereon and also see if there are any cars beingbacked out of the storage spaces and into their ath. This easyvisibility materially lessens danger and confusion, avoids the necessityof extreme caution, and enables a driver to speed up his vehicle when hesees that his path is clear for a long distance ahead and around theturns of the spiral. I

The inclination of the floor 5, the arrangei ment of the rampslongitudinally of the inclined direction of the oors, and theinclination of the ramps oppositely to the inclination of the floors,enables both the floors and the ramps to share the ascent grade. Thegrade is thus made longer and less steep. This increased length of thegrade entails no additional sacrifice of storage space owing to the factthat it occurs in th e;;fioor driveway spaces 10 and 11 which arenecessarily provided to render the storage spaces accessible. The risein the driveways 10 and 11 in the distance between the opposite ends ofthe ramps is suflicient to materially reduce the necessary inclinationof the ramps and pro-- vide a low andalmost continuous grade for theinter-floor trafiic. The outward spread of the ramp ends 9 along curvedlines merges the ramp grade laterally with the floor and enables thevehicles to be driven from the driveways 12 and 13'to the ramps, or viceversa, evenly and without objectionable twisting strains when they makethe turns.

What I claim is: p

1. A storage building structure comprising a plurality of superposedinclined storage and driveway floors; and a lurality of ramps directlyconnecting said oors in sucway floors all inclined in the same directionand convering substantially the entire enclosed storage area of thebuilding; and a plurality of superposed ramps inclined oppositely tosaid floors and directly connecting the latter in succession to providedriveway connection therebetween through said floors, said'rampsbeing-within the bounds of the floor areas.

3. A storage building comprising a plurality 0t superposed storage anddriveway floors all inclined in the same direction; and a plurality ofsuperposed rams inclined oppositely to said floors and directlyconnecting the latter in succession to provide driveway connectionstherebetween, said ramps being materially shorter than the inclinedlengths of the floors and terminating material distances inwardly fromthe ends of the floors, the floor areas extending entirely around theramps and each floor being provided with driveway spaces extendingentirely around the ramps and leading to the ramps con.- nected to it,and with storage spaces arranged along said driveway spaces.

4. A storage building comprising a plurality of superposed storage anddriveway floors-all inclined in the same direction; and a plurality oframps inclined oppositely to said floors and directly connecting thelatter in succession to provide driveway connections therebetween, saidramps being materially shorter than the inclined lengths of the floorsconnected to them, and each floor being provided with a driveway spaceconnecting the ends of the ramps leading to the floor and with storagespaces arranged along said driveway space.

5. A storage building comprising a plurality of superposed storage anddriveway floors all inclined in the same direction; and a plurality oframps inclined oppositely to said floors.and connecting the latter insuccession to provide driveway connections therebetween, each floorextending entirely around its connected ramps and being provided withdriveway'spac'es extending entirely around the ramps and leading tothem, and with storage spaces arranged along said driveway spaces atopposite sidesof the ramps.

6. A storage building structure comprising a plurality of superposedstorage and driveway floors all inclined in the same direction; and aplurality of superposed ramps inclined oppositely to said floors anddirectlyconnecting the latter in succession to provide drivewayconnections therebetween the therebetween, each floor extendingentirelyaround its connected ramps and being provided with drivewayspaces extending entirely around the ramps and leading to them, and withstorage spaces arranged along said driveway spaices at opposite sides ofthe ramps, the passageways over the ramps being laterally exposed alontheir length at both sides to the adjacent oors.

8. A storage building comprising a plurality of superposed parallelstorage and driveway floors all inclined in the same directionand formedwith vertically alining openings through their inclined areas; aplurality of straight superposed paralleldriveway ramps inclinedoppositely to said floors, connected directly to the latter insuccession through said openings and formed to accommodate an ascendingstream of traflic and a descending stream side by side, said ramps beingmaterially shorter than the inclined lengths of the floors connected tothem, each floor extending entierly around its connected ramps andprovided with longitudinal driveway spaces extending parallel to theramps at,

opposite sidesthereof and beyond the ends of the ramps, storage spacesalong the lengths of said spaces and transverse driveway spacesconnecting each end of each ramp with said longitudinal driveway spacesto provide. a substantially spiral vehicular ascent path and a separatesubstantially spiral vehicular descent path from floor to floor, thepassages over the ramps being laterally exposed along their lengths atboth sides to the adjacent floors.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aflix my signature.

FERNAN D E. DHUMY.

